By Ross McKitrick, Ph.D
Professor of Environmental Economics, University of Guelph, Canada

Introduction

News broke on or around 19 November 2009 that a large archive of emails and files from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) in the UK had been released on the internet. The contents of the files were sufficiently disconcerting to the public, governments and university administrations that a number of inquiries were established. Several of my research projects were discussed not only in the so-called “Climategate” emails themselves, but also in the investigations, and I made detailed submissions of evidence to three of the panels.

Consequently I take considerable interest in the outcome of these inquiries, especially with regards to whether they approached the issues impartially, investigated thoroughly and drew valid conclusions that fully reflected the evidence.

As of 30 August 2010 all five had issued their reports. The overall impression that has been created is that the scientists and their work were vindicated. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Chair Rajendra Pachauri declared in a recent interview1

“the doubts raised have proved to be unfounded.”

Considerable reliance is being placed upon the outcome of these investigations. As I will
show, for the most part the inquiries were flawed, but where they actually functioned as proper inquiries, they upheld many criticisms. But a surprising number of issues were sidestepped or handled inadequately. The world still awaits a proper inquiry into climategate: one that is not stacked with global warming advocates, and one that is prepared to cross-examine evidence, interview critics as well as supporters of the CRU and other IPCC players, and follow the evidence where it clearly leads.

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There will be a revolution in science and a rebirth of the experimental method because McIntyre and McKitrick had the courage to expose the widespread roots of the Climategate scandal:

Al Gore, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), world leaders, the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the Royal Society, the Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee, the International Inter-Academy Panel on International Issues (IAP), the International Inter-Academy Council (IAC), the US Department of Energy (DOE), editors of leading research journals, public TV, the news media, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), etc.

Take a bow, Steve and Ross!

You have also reaffirmed the spiritual foundation of science:
“Truth is victorious, never untruth.”
[Mundaka Upanishad 3.1.6; Qur’an 17.85]